Alfred Molina - An Education, Chocolat, Frida, As You Like It, Prick
Up Your Ears

Why? Johnny Depp. Eleventh movie of JD marathon.

Seen: Three times. Now: November
15, 2013.

Poor nerdy, uncool JD. Or William Blake
as he’s called here. That suit! Those soulful bespectacled eyes. He’s so
pathetic.

But he makes a pretty cool killer. Poor guy. He’s just a
simple accountant from Cleveland trying to survive the Wild West. It isn’t
easy. Crooked industrial tycoon. Vicious bounty hunters. Vengeful lawmen.
Everyone wants him dead except the mysterious Nobody in full Indian regalia
spouting the poetry of the other William Blake and a lot of “Indian malarkey,”
to quote the JD version of Bill Blake.

It can’t get much more absurd than that but it does. It’s a
road movie on horseback through summer deserts and forests and bleak winter
mountains with touches of cannibalism and head squishing. To quote Hal: “This
is so grotesque.”

That it is. It’s also
fascinating, beautifully filmed in black and white and scored with Neil Young’s
twangy guitar.

Superstars (at least in my listings) pop up all over the
place: John Hurt, Gabriel Byrne, Crispan Glover, Iggy Pop, and that’s always
fun. Gary Farmer is known to me mainly
through the dad in Smoke Signals, one of the world’s best movies which
I’ve seen about ten times (yet to be reviewed on this blog however).

JD. Yes. If not his
best, then this one is right there at the top.
He, and the film, must be seen. Repeatedly.